Well, it finally happened. I am experiencing a writer's worst nightmare. Just couldn't find anything to write about daylilies. What is a writer to do? Fortunately, we garden writers have an edge --Wesley Ford, our fearless managing editor. He suggested a topic that I had heard about on the Daylily Robin. There was an under current of talk about a new disease that was attacking our beloved daylilies. What? The reason that I grow and suggest that everyone grow daylilies was that they are so healthy. What was going on? I had to investigate.
Sure, I knew that some diseases such as leaf streak, which is caused by the fungus Collecephalus hemerocalli, was possible. Good cultural practices can almost eliminate it. Divide your plants before the entire bed is filled in by our very prolific daylilies. Water at the base of the plant. Don't water overhead. I notice that many daylily growers have a type of watering system that promotes this disease. There are no fungicides currently labeled for control of diseases of daylily foliage.
I contacted Jim Shields, who tracks all types of information about daylilies. If anyone knew of this new disease, he would. Sure enough, he sent me several links that addressed this topic. They are calling it a daylily rust disease.
At first, they thought it might be caused by Puccinnia hemerocallidis, which is native to Asia. But, some of the microbiologists began doing looking more closely at spore morphology. They discovered lots of one-celled teliospores and thin urediospore walls. They have assigned a "provisional name of Puccinia sp. to the pathogen until they can complete their studies.
They are tracing the arrival of this new disease into our country. Daylily plant material enters the US from Costa Rica, Central America, and South Africa from the port in Miami, Florida. The disease is presently in South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, and Florida.
What are the symptoms? This is not pretty. There seems to be a range of susceptibility among the daylilies and new infections can occur within three days. This disease forms small orange pustules on both the top and bottom leaf surfaces. They appear orange due to the color of the spores. As the infection increases, the foliage start to yellow from the tip down. The areas containing the rust stays green. It looks like green leaf spots on yellow foliage. The leaves begin to die back, starting with the lower ones. This disease is spread by the spores from the rust.
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